**6. Conclusions**

It has been discussed in this chapter that cork stoppers are probably responsible for most of the TCA taint problems in wine. However, besides corks, TCA can also be originated from the cellar atmosphere and contaminate wines bottled with noncork closures (screw caps, synthetic stoppers, etc). Therefore, some authors have suggested that "moldy taint" or "musty taint" may be more appropriate terms for TCA contaminated wines than "cork taint" [22].

Two main approaches to the analysis of TCA in cork stoppers have been described: determination of *total TCA* and *releasable TCA* contents. The latter is especially important for assessing the contamination of corks before wine bottling.

Then, current methods of reduction/elimination of TCA in corks were considered, which are based on two tactics: cleaning of cork material to remove TCA and sorting of corks to select "TCA-free" ones. It has been shown that application of these methods significantly reduces the incidences of TCA defects in wine nowadays. Improved cork production technologies also play an important role. They provide better control and prevention of TCA formation on the stages of bark slabs treatment, storage, etc.

For wines contaminated with TCA, methods for removing/diminishing the TCA content have been discussed (mainly industrial-scale treatments). Many of the mentioned wine cleaning methods can reduce the TCA concentration in wine by 80–90% or more, but they are not universal and not always cost-efficient. In addition, they can cause some side effects such as removal of certain positive aroma compounds.

Finally, it can be concluded that the deep understanding of the TCA problem and the further development of modern technologies give a good chance that the number of defective wines will continue to decline also in the future.

### **Acknowledgements**

The authors thank Tatyana Felyust for preparation of **Figures 1**, **6**, and **8**; Elsa Ericson and Niël van Wyk for proofreading.

*Grapes and Wine*
